FIRST GROUP BOSS JOINS CALL FOR HIGH SPEED LINE

01 Mar 2006

BRITAIN’S FirstGroup chief executive Moir Lockhead has joined the calls for a UK high-speed rail network.

He said Britain must follow the continental lead and could even "think the unthinkable" and develop a train without wheels like the Maglev.

The call came when he gave the this year’s Sir Robert Reid memorial lecture to the CILT(UK) in London.

Mr Lockhead, who heads what in April becomes Britain's biggest rail franchise operator, said: "Let's think big. Being world pioneers in railways,
canals and underground systems was great - but we did not have the opportunity to learn from what others had already tried.

"That is not the case with high speed lines. We don't necessarily need to copy what the Japanese and European lines are delivering today. I have travelled on the Shanghai [Maglev] link to their airport clocking up 431 km/h. No nation has attempted anything on the scale we would need here but let's look at it in parallel to the more conventional options."


SECOND ‘MAGLEV’ LINE APPROVED BY CHINA

AS the debate about a future north-south high speed route hots up in Britain, China’s government has approved a second magnetic-levitation (Maglev) line — between Shanghai and the eastern city of Hangzhou. The new link will use technology provided by German company Transrapid International, which has already supplied the high-speed Maglev link to Shanghai airport.

Shanghai municipal officials have for three years debated the construction of a second Maglev line that would cover the 170 km (106 miles) to Hangzhou in just 26 minutes.

China currently operates the world's only commercial Maglev line, which connects Shanghai's international airport to near the city's financial centre in Pudong district, a run of 30 km (18.75 miles). The original line was built at a cost of $1.2 billion (£685 million), reported Agence France-Presse.

Germany's Transrapid International — a consortium comprising German industrial giants ThyssenKrupp AG and Siemens — designs and builds the Maglev trains, which travel at speeds of up to 430 km/h (270 mph).

The original line was built at a cost of $1.2 billion (££685 million), reported Agence France-Presse.

Germany's Transrapid International — a consortium comprising German industrial giants ThyssenKrupp AG and Siemens, designs and builds the Maglev trains — which travel at speeds of up to 430 km/h (270 mph).


SOURCE RAILNEWS